This consortium project, under the coordination / leadership of Gazi University, to improve the professional and personal development of the students, to improve the professional knowledge and skills of the administrative staff and to support the internationalization of the academicians. In addition, this project aims to provide students with improved professional and personal skills to contribute to their employees and work in more qualified jobs. With this project, however, students are expected to develop foreign language skills. Innovative practices in administrative staff are targeted at universities. It is envisaged that the number of scientific publications, conferences, and projects will increase with the academic staff of the project after the project with the host institution academicians.In this project, from different regions of Turkey, Gazi, Karabuk, Nigde Omer Halisdemir, and Sinop universities are in this consortium. In addition to Akademisyenler Birliği Derneği and Karabuk İktisadi Kalkınma Vakfı are partner by NGO.The consortium coordinator is Gazi University; project preparation, presentation, execution, monitoring, financial transactions, reporting and dissemination activities. All of these activities were also assisted by other partners. Participant selection process was carried out by each university itself and additionally Gazi University supported the joint universities in finding internship place. It was aimed that students of these consortium partner universities would be sent abroad for the internship. In this context; 95 undergraduate and postgraduate students are allowed to perform internship activities. In addition, 20 administrative staff and 6 academic staff participated in this consortium.

<< Objectives >>The aim of our project:a. Developing the handcraft skills of low level mentally retarded student who are studying in the field of vocational educationb. Increasing motivation of low level mentally retarded student who are studying in the field of vocational educationc. Create awareness among of low level mentally retarded student who are studying in the field of vocational education regarding environment and climate change and how to deal with it.<< Implementation >>a. Creating educational videos on producing different kinds of materials (souvenirs, toys, household goods, ornament) out of recycling materials through handcraft tecniquesb. Preparation of a booklet regarding environment and climate change awareness and how to deal with itc. Preparing pilot trainingsd. Working on project dissemination<< Results >>a. Developing our students' hand skills regarding traditional handcraftb. Raising awareness among our students regarding environment and climate change and how to deal with itc. Developing innovate practices on traditional handcraftd. Create synergy among participating Organisations, maintain the continuity of information sharing

Through participation in the EU projects Our University is committed to reinforce the quality of higher education by combining the expertiseand knowledge of universities from Europe.With more than 24 EU countries , 170 partner universities for Erasmus KA103 up to now, the University has undertaken projects both at the graduate and undergraduate levels and staff mobility studies to foster competent candidates and researchers who are attractive employees, entrepreneurs and innovators in a global setting .

<< Background >>One of the main missions of the modern Higher Education systems is to provide students with key skills to manage their life and career plans in a complex and challenging society. The levels of early leaving and failures of students still remain very high and the rate of youth disengagement is one of the social and economic risks in Europe. The pandemic crisis provided evidence of how high this risk is and showed the vulnerability of our communities and the need of re-shaping our priorities by also enhancing the set of crucial skills for future generations. Learning from real life is one of the challenges for Higher Education systems and enhancing the active role of each university in promoting civic engagement of all students and of the academic community locally and internationally becomes a priority. Student disengagement represents a human, social, cultural and economic cost for individuals and the whole society. Many countries are carrying out tutoring and peer learning programmes in order to prevent early leaving from Higher Education. Also career guidance is a more and more powerful strategy for preventing students' dropout rates, while widening career opportunities in different social groups, promoting lifelong learning and supporting students during transitions.According to the European lifelong guidance strategy (2008), the main aim of career guidance is, in fact, to equip the individual with transversal competences to better manage and develop his or her potential in education, work and life. “Career Management Skills” (CMS) represent the key concept of this strategy. They refer to a set of personal, reflective, social and digital skills needed for making and implementing career decisions and transitions. Consequently, the challenge for universities is to promote and enhance the quality of teaching, for which it is necessary to implement innovative student-centred teaching methodologies. These methodologies require the commitment of students to their studies, which is not always present. Misperceptions and misunderstandings of duties and commitments often play a role in the student's lifetime and adversely affect the study plan. This set of problems during academic life puts students at risk for problems such as exclusion, loss of confidence, dropout and unemployment. Furthermore, early academic leaving affects the academic system and undermines the performance of the HE system moving energies and potentials into the labor market. In this scenario the model of Community Service Learning (CSL) will become a great innovation in didactics because it promotes learning in real situations, involving students in civic initiatives and social programmes aimed to benefit local or international communities. A structured programme of CSL (integrated within the learning offer of the HEIs) helps students master important curriculum content by supporting them in making meaningful connections between topics they are studying and their many applications. Furthermore, it combines the needs for improving career guidance and tutoring services with the need to improve the quality of teaching.Service-learning offers a unique opportunity for students to get involved with their communities in a tangible way, by integrating service projects with didactic and learning. Studies indicate that “students evaluating their service-learning courses are more likely than students evaluating other courses to report that the courses promoted interpersonal, community and academic engagement, were academically challenging, and encouraged their continued study at the University.” (Gallini & Moely, 2003). Furthermore, a correlation seems to exist between Community Service Learning and increased personal awareness, increased social awareness, and improved student learning outcomes that are all rooted in learning conditions that ultimately engage and retain students in post-secondary institutions (Prentice & Robinson, 2010).<< Objectives >>From Student to Active Citizen is a key element of renewed and expanding HEIs commitment to both civic engagement education and more inclusive academic policies. After the Pandemic crisis, the education for civic engagement and a responsive academic governance is founding objectives of a renewed European spirit. These goals remain essential for the future as the European higher education system continue to seek productive ways to engage their community in the whole society. This need is combined with the priority to looking forward the academic learning system to be more student centred, be careful to improve students’ wellbeing and to increase their academic engagement to prevent drop out or poor performance. All the universities involved in the ENHANCE Project are looking to find smart solutions to increase the students’ performance and the academic social commitment in order to be more engaged in the society, to give answer to the emerging needs of the labour market and to address the research for social scopes.The ENHANCE project aims at design and develop an innovative Community Service Learning approach with related learning tools and digital resources. A modern CSL system will enhance students' self-knowledge, empathy, communication skills and cultural awareness. Its practices allow students to acquire social skills and attitudes that are implemented in everyday life. Meta-analyses also show the effect of Service Learning on the development of diverse competencies. Most papers present Service Learning as a valid pedagogical strategy for acquiring knowledge, attitudes and promoting civic engagement. For the ENHANCE partnership the Community Service Learning is also a fundament set of practices to implement career guidance and academic tutoring, because it helps students retain more information learned in class, achieve higher course grades, and have greater satisfaction with the course; these are aspects that irreversible impact on the future citizen, workers, and researchers. The ENHANCE consortium aims at finding smart solutions in design an innovative CSL system, also based on the partners experience to guaranteeing remote continuity of the teaching–learning process during the pandemic crisis.Equally, for this project, ICT is a crucial ally for a sound implementation of community service-learning into the academic services since it increases ease of access and relevance during the student's dynamic construction of a new career, training and educational pathway. New technology is an area of transformative social change (e- learning, virtual mobility, social media, etc.). ICT goes beyond conventional education and introduces a feedback loop that enables stakeholders and diverse target groups to contribute to the design of the system. Community service-learning will be provided at any stage of academic career, with the support of the tutoring and career services and within all learning environments. This innovative approach also implies an increasing need for a new set of digital tools and resources for empowering the tutoring and career services. The project achievements also include the implementation of a cooperative strategy for introducing and integrating Service-Learning in the tutoring and career service of the universities involved in the project. CSL will also improve the academic system of micro-credentials, related to several learning pathways. A micro-credential is a recognised proof of the learning outcomes that a learner has achieved following a short learning experience, according to transparent standards and requirements and upon assessment. Micro-credentials are owned by the learner, are shareable, portable and may be combined into larger credentials or qualifications. Through micro-credentials the new CSL system will be easily integrated in the formal learning offer of each HEIs.<< Implementation >>The main activities of the ENHANCE project includes: 1 - Participatory Action Research (PAR) - The consortium will collect best references, models and practices on Community Service Learning (CSL) through an international desk research and local and national focus groups with tutors, education staff and other associated stakeholders. PAR is a pedagogical approach based on the direct and active involvement of stakeholders and beneficiaries in the co-creation of the new CSL system, based on the related project outputs (IO1-IO2-IO3). The working groups will include tutors, career guidance practitioners, coordinators, trainers, students, experts and researchers. All participants play an active role as “researchers” and cooperate for building a new contextualised knowledge, developing innovative actions for solving common issues and for designing the new CSL model and to collect practices and models for implementing all tools and resources.The PAR will be the methodological base to design and to test all IOs (IO1 - IO3) through regional pilot actions with a wide and direct involvement of tutors and students in 5 Countries.2 - The European framework of Career Management Skills (CMS) will be the based to design the Virtual CSL platform, to build the learning offer and to define the micro-credential related to each pathways (in real situations or within virtual environments for e-learning). Each students involved in Community Service Learning will collect and upload learning evidences to gain micro-credential related to the CMS and other key skills. 3 - Pilot Actions: all regional teams in Spain, Italy, Romania, Greece and Turkey will set up the CSL system and test the model within the HEIs involved and through civic programmes and social initiatives in cooperation with the associated partners. The main achievements will be the validation of the products (IO1-IO2-IO3) and the implementation of the learning and tutoring resources.4 - International Training - In Spain a group of selected tutors from 5 countries will trained to use the CSL model and the related digital tools. Trained tutors will be appointed as ENHANCE Ambassador to lead dissemination and further exploitation activities and initiatives nationally and internationally. The training module for CSL Tutors (IO3) will be created and shared as MOOC by all HEIs involved in the project.The work plan shared and implemented by all partners will produce 3 relevant outputs (IO1 - IO3) designed and related as a coherent set of models and resources to providing tailored and effective CSL programmes for students' engagement and career education.<< Results >>Main project results will be:- Creation of a common international approach on Community Service Learning - CSL (IO1), as learning resource for enhancing the academic training offer and the tutorship services. It will be produced a comprehensive Handbook for tutors and educative staff, based on the best practices and learning resources. The main focus will be on the Career Management Skills framework, following the EU Resolutions, to support all students in the building of a lifelong career and learnig plan. This theoretical and methodological document will be used by all partners and associated partners to enhance and enlarge learning opportunites in real life and civic engagement for all students. It will be also a base model all HEIs in Europe for improving education policiesand build inclusive systems to validate informal learning through a micro-credential system. 2 - Development of an innovative web portal for supporting Virtual Commyunity Service Learning (IO2). This tool will have a potentially strong impact as it allows HEIs to provide community service learning on line and e-tutoring support to students and organisations involved. The platform will be multi-languages to foster an international use and widest exploitation.3 - E-learning platform and training module for CSL tutors and education staff of HEIs (IO3). This resource will be designed as MOOD to be used freely by all Universities and other HEIs for training and updating tutors, trainers and career practicioners.

The project Stories We Tell aimed to involve youth workers and artists from various corners of Europe, in order to exchange and develop educational tools that use legends, myths and creative writing as a source of inspiration and encouragement to young people, calling them to the attention of the potential of its natural habitat, transforming leading to become active agents in its development as members of a community.For fourteen days, twenty one youth workers and artists, from seven different countries, participated in a Training Course in Picardie. Together they shared personal and professional experiences and analyzed the influence of the storytelling and creative writing in the perception of remote local communities have of the outside world. Through workshops, which merged non-formal and informal learning methods, the participants developed work tools that enable them to capture attention of local young people, regardless of their geographical location and socio-economic and political conditions. The set of methods, tools and exercises developed over the course of the numerous activities will be implemented by the participants, resulting in webpages showcasing local legends, myths and historical facts (result of the local research) and original stories, poems, letters, essays inspired by the region. The final object developed by participants and local youth was presented to the local community and later will be released on a European scale.The creation of cross-sector educational tools enabled the participants to improve their personal and professional skills. Working closely with other European professionals allowed them the opportunity to build an international network as well as to contribute to the development of a European identity and a civic sense. The production of an educational booklet illustrating the tools developed during the Training Course; the public presentation of drafts of the final result highlighting the potential of the locality served as awareness material in rural communities, focusing in particular on young people and the importance of taking an active role in the development of the region, European citizenship and civic spirit. Any outcome from this Training Course will be used by all partners involved in order to multiply the impact of the activities carried out through the media and dissemination to local, regional, national, European and international. In the long term, the partnership aims to extend the influence of the project before new target audiences.